and also what does paul ryan think. he will be the darling of the republicans. gwen: do we think that the well of the executive branch can be unpoisoned? >> i think so. i'm reasonably optimistic about the prospects that -- once we put the campaign 3w450eu7bd us, something's going to happen. it will be easier if obama is re-elected. boehner returns as speaker and harry reid returns as the senate leader because they've been in this before. i think president obama would call john boehner. and he would tweak his plan for a concession with republicans. if obama is re-elected, republicans for a brief moment would say, we've got to do a little business with him and then they will move on. gwen: we have to touch on the biggest story of the week which is the super storm sandy. and i wonder in the end -- i know in the beginning i thought to myself, well, in -- only blue states were affected. but i wonder what we saw with christie and bloomberg, whether that at the end didn't reap down to the incumbent? >> probably in a small way. small things can have potentially big cons